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Why  Grow  Old? 


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Why  Grow  Old? 


By 

Orison  Swett  Marden 

Author  of  "  Every  Man  a  King,"  "  Peace 
Power,  and  Plenty,"  etc. 


New  York 

Thomas  Y.  Crowell  Co. 

Publishers 


BOSTON  COLLEGE  LIBRARY 
CHKSTJNUT  HILL,  MASS, 


f 


Copyright,  1909 
By  Orison  Swett  Marden 

Copyright,  1909 
By  Thomas  Y.  Crowell  &  Co. 


WHY  GROW  OLD? 

m * 

"  The  face  cannot  betray  the  years  until  the  mind  has  given 
its  consent.     The  mind  is  the  sculptor." 

"We  renew  our  bodies  by  renewing  our  thoughts;  change 
our  bodies,  our  habits,  by  changing  our  thoughts." 

^^^^OT  long  ago  the  former  secretary  to  a 
B  justice  of  the  New  York  Supreme  Court 
J^  '  w  committed  suicide  on  his  seventieth 
birthday. 

"The  Statute  of  Limitations;  a  Brief  Essay  on 
the  Osier  Theory  of  Life,"  was  found  beside  the 
dead  body.    It  read  in  part: 

"Threescore  and  ten  —  this  is  the  scriptural 
statute  of  limitations.  After  that,  active  work  for 
man  ceases,  his  time  on  earth  has  expired.  .  .  . 

"I  am  seventy  —  threescore  and  ten  —  and  I 
am  fit  only  for  the  chimney-corner.  ..." 

This  man  had  dwelt  so  long  on  the  so-called 
Osier  theory  —  that  a  man  is  practically  useless 
and  only  a  burden  to  himself  and  the  world  after 
sixty  —  and  the  biblical  limitation  of  life  to  three- 
score years  and  ten,  that  he  made  up  his  mind  he 
would  end  it  all  on  his  seventieth  birthday. 

Leaving  aside  Dr.  Osier's  theory,  there  is  no 
doubt  that  the  acceptance  in  a  strictly  literal 
[3] 


Why    Grow    Old? 


sense  of  the  biblical  life  limit  has  proved  a  decided 
injury  to  the  race.  We  are  powerfully  influenced 
by  our  self-imposed  limitations  and  convictions, 
and  it  is  well  known  that  many  people  die  very 
near  the  limit  they  set  for  themselves,  even  though 
they  are  in  good  health  when  this  conviction  settles 
upon  them.  Yet  there  is  no  probability  that  the 
Psalmist  had  any  idea  of  setting  any  limit  to  the 
life  period,  or  that  he  had  any  authority  whatever 
for  so  doing.  Many  of  the  sayings  in  the  Bible 
which  people  take  so  literally  and  accept  blindly 
as  standards  of  living  are  merely  figures  of  speech 
used  to  illustrate  an  idea.  So  far  as  the  Bible  is 
concerned,  there  is  just  as  much  reason  for  setting 
the  life  limit  at  one  hundred  and  twenty  or  even 
at  Methuselah's  age  (nine  hundred  and  sixty-nine) 
as  at  seventy  or  eighty.  There  is  no  evidence  in 
the  Scriptures  that  even  suggests  the  existence  of 
an  age  limit  beyond  which  man  was  not  supposed 
or  allowed  to  pass. 

In  fact  the  whole  spirit  of  the  Bible  is  to  en- 
courage long  life  through  sane  and  healthful  living. 
It  points  to  the  duty  of  living  a  useful  and  noble 
life,  of  making  as  much  of  ourselves  as  possible, 
all  of  which  tends  to  prolong  our  years  on  earth. 

It  would  be  a  reflection  upon  the  Creator  to 
suggest  that  He  would  limit  human  life  to  less 
[4] 


Why    Grow    Old? 


than  three  times  the  age  at  which  it  reaches 
maturity  (about  thirty)  when  all  the  analogy  of 
nature,  especially  in  the  animal  kingdom,  points 
to  at  least  five  times  the  length  of  the  maturing 
period.  Should  not  the  highest  manifestation  of 
God's  creation  have  a  length  of  life  at  least  equal 
to  that  of  the  animal  ?  Infinite  wisdom  does  not 
shake  the  fruit  off  the  tree  before  it  is  ripe. 

We  do  not  half  realize  what  slaves  we  are  to 
our  mental  attitudes,  what  power  our  convictions 
have  to  influence  our  lives.  Multitudes  of  people 
undoubtedly  shorten  their  lives  by  many  years 
because  of  their  deep-seated  convictions  that  they 
will  not  live  beyond  a  certain  age  —  the  age, 
perhaps,  at  which  their  parents  died.  How  often 
we  hear  this  said :  "I  do  not  expect  to  live  to  be 
very  old ;  my  father  and  mother  died  young." 

Not  long  ago  a  New  York  man,  in  perfect  health, 
told  his  family  that  he  was  certain  he  should  die 
on  his  next  birthday.  On  the  morning  of  his 
birthday  his  family,  alarmed  because  he  refused 
to  go  to  work,  saying  that  he  should  certainly  die 
before  midnight,  insisted  upon  calling  in  the 
family  physician,  who  examined  him  and  said 
there  was  nothing  the  matter  with  him.  But  the 
man  refused  to  eat,  grew  weaker  and  weaker 
during  the  day,  and  actually  died  before  mid- 
[5] 


Why    Grow    Old? 


night.  The  conviction  that  he  was  going  to 
die  had  become  so  intrenched  in  his  mind  that 
the  whole  force  of  his  mentality  acted  to  cut 
off  the  life  force,  and  finally  to  strangle  com- 
pletely the  life  processes. 

Now,  if  this  man's  conviction  could  have  been 
changed  by  some  one  who  had  sufficient  power  over 
him,  or  if  the  mental  suggestion  that  he  was  going 
to  live  to  a  good  old  age  had  been  implanted  in  his 
mind  in  place  of  the  death  idea,  he  would  probably 
have  lived  many  years  longer. 

If  you  have  convinced  yourself,  or  if  the  idea 
has  been  ingrained  into  the  very  structure  of  your 
being  by  your  training  or  the  multitudes  of  ex- 
amples about  you,  that  you  will  begin  to  show 
the  marks  of  age  at  about  fifty,  that  at  sixty  you 
will  lose  the  power  of  your  faculties,  your  interest 
in  life;  that  you  will  become  practically  useless 
and  have  to  retire  from  your  business,  and  that 
thereafter  you  will  continue  to  decline  until  you 
are  cut  off  entirely,  there  is  no  power  in  the  world 
that  can  keep  the  old-age  processes  and  signs  from 
developing  in  you. 

Thought  leads.  If  it  is  an  old-age  thought,  old 
age  must  follow.  If  it  is  a  youthful  thought,  a 
perennial  young-life  thought,  a  thought  of  useful- 
ness and  helpfulness,  the  body  must  correspond. 
[6] 


Why    Grow    Old? 


Old  age  begins  in  the  mind.  The  expression  of 
age  in  the  body  is  the  harvest  of  old-age  ideas 
which  have  been  planted  in  the  mind.  We  see 
others  about  our  age  beginning  to  decline  and  show 
marks  of  decrepitude,  and  we  imagine  it  is  about 
time  for  us  to  show  the  same  signs.  Ultimately  we 
do  show  them,  because  we  think  they  are  inevitable. 
But  they  are  only  inevitable  because  of  our  old-age 
mental  attitude  and  race  habit  beliefs. 

If  we  actually  refuse  to  grow  old ;  if  we  insist  on 
holding  the  youthful  ideal  and  the  young,  hopeful, 
buoyant  thought,  the  old-age  ear-marks  will  not 
show  themselves. 

The  elixir  of  youth  lies  in  the  mind  or  nowhere. 
You  cannot  be  young  by  trying  to  appear  so,  by 
dressing  youthfully.  You  must  first  get  rid  of  the 
last  vestige  of  thought  that  you  are  aging.  As 
long  as  that  is  in  the  mind,  cosmetics  and  youthful 
dress  will  amount  to  very  little  in  changing  your 
appearance.  The  conviction  must  first  be  changed ; 
the  thought  which  has  produced  the  aging  con- 
dition must  be  reversed. 

If  we  can  only  establish  the  perpetual-youth 
mental  attitude,  so  that  we  feel  young,  we  have 
won  half  the  battle  against  old  age.  Be  sure  of 
this,  that  whatever  you  feel  regarding  your  age 
will  be  expressed  in  your  body. 
E?3 


Why    Grow    Old? 


It  is  a  great  aid  to  the  perpetuation  of  youth  to 
learn  to  feel  young,  however  long  we  may  have 
lived,  because  the  body  expresses  the  habitual 
feeling,  habitual  thought.  Nothing  in  the  world 
will  make  us  look  young  as  long  as  we  are  con- 
vinced that  we  are  aging. 

Nothing  else  more  effectually  retards  age  than 
the  keeping  in  mind  the  bright,  cheerful,  optim- 
istic, hopeful,  buoyant  picture  of  youth,  in  all  its 
splendor,  magnificence;  the  picture  of  the  glories 
which  belong  to  youth  —  youthful  dreams,  ideals, 
hopes,  and  all  the  qualities  which  belong  to  young 
life. 

One  great  trouble  with  us  is  that  our  imagina- 
tions age  prematurely.  The  hard,  exacting  condi- 
tions of  our  modern,  strenuous  life  tend  to  harden 
and  dry  up  the  brain  and  nerve  cells,  and  thus 
seriously  injure  the  power  of  the  imagination, 
which  should  be  kept  fresh,  bouyant,  elastic. 
The  average  routine  habit  of  modern  business 
life  tends  to  destroy  the  flexibility,  the  delicacy, 
the  sensitiveness,  the  exquisite  fineness  of  the 
perceptive  faculties. 

People  who  take  life  too  seriously,  who  seem 
to  think  everything  depends  upon  their  own  in- 
dividual efforts,  whose  lives  are  one  continuous 
grind  in  living-getting,  have  a  hard  expression, 
[8] 


Why    Grow   Old? 


their  thought  outpictures  itself  in  their  faces. 
These  people  dry  up  early  in  life,  become  wrinkled ; 
their  tissues  become  as  hard  as  their  thought. 

The  arbitrary,  domineering,  overbearing  mind 
also  tends  to  age  the  body  prematurely,  because 
the  thinking  is  hard,  strained,  abnormal. 

People  who  live  on  the  sunny  and  beautiful  side 
of  life,  who  cultivate  serenity,  do  not  age  nearly  so 
rapidly  as  do  those  who  live  on  the  shady,  the 
dark  side. 

Another  reason  why  so  many  people  age  pre- 
maturely is  because  they  cease  to  grow.  It  is  a 
lamentable  fact  that  multitudes  of  men  seem  in- 
capable of  receiving  or  accepting  new  ideas  after 
they  have  reached  middle  age.  Many  of  them, 
after  they  have  reached  the  age  of  forty  or  fifty, 
come  to  a  standstill  in  their  mental  reaching  out. 

Don't  think  that  you  must  "begin  to  take  in 
sail,"  to  stop  growing,  stop  progressing,  just  be- 
cause you  have  gotten  along  in  years.  By  this 
method  of  reasoning  you  will  decline  rapidly. 
Never  allow  yourself  to  get  out  of  the  habit  of 
being  young.  Do  not  say  that  you  cannot  do  this 
or  that  as  you  once  did.  Live  the  life  that  belongs 
to  youth.  Do  not  be  afraid  of  being  a  boy  or  girl 
again  in  spirit,  no  matter  how  many  years  you 
have  lived.  Carry  yourself  so  that  you  will  not 
[9] 


Why   Grow   Old? 


suggest  old  age  in  any  of  its  phases.  Remem- 
ber it  is  the  stale  mind,  the  stale  mentality,  that 
ages  the  body.  Keep  growing,  keep  interested 
in  everything  about  you. 

It  has  been  shown  that  the  conviction  that  one 
is  going  to  die  at  about  a  certain  time,  a  certain 
age,  tends  to  bring  about  the  expected  dissolution 
by  strangling  the  life  processes. 

If  you  wish  to  retain  your  youth,  forget  un- 
pleasant experiences,  disagreeable  incidents.  A 
lady  eighty  years  old  was  recently  asked  how  she 
managed  to  keep  herself  so  youthful.  She  replied : 
"I  know  how  to  forget  disagreeable  things.' ' 

No  one  can  remain  youthful  who  does  not 
continue  to  grow,  and  no  one  can  keep  growing 
who  does  not  keep  alive  his  interest  in  the  great 
world  about  him.  We  are  so  constituted  that  we 
draw  a  large  part  of  our  nourishment  from  others. 
No  man  can  isolate  himself,  can  cut  himself  off 
from  his  fellows,  without  shrinking  in  his  mental 
stature.  The  mind  that  is  not  constantly  reaching 
out  for  the  new,  as  well  as  keeping  in  touch  with 
the  old,  soon  reaches  its  limit  of  growth. 

Nothing  else  is  easier  than  for  a  man  to  age. 

All  he  has  to  do  is  to  think  he  is  growing  old ;   to 

expect  it,  to  fear  it,  and  prepare  for  it ;  to  compare 

himself  with  others   of  the  same  age  who  are 

[10] 


Why    Grow    Old? 


prematurely  old  and  to  assume  that  he  is  like 
them. 

To  think  constantly  of  the  "end,"  to  plan  for 
death,  to  prepare  and  provide  for  declining  years, 
is  simply  to  acknowledge  that  your  powers  are 
waning,  that  you  are  losing  your  grip  upon  life. 
Such  thinking  tends  to  weaken  your  hold  upon  the 
life  principle,  and  your  body  gradually  corresponds 
with  your  conviction. 

The  very  belief  that  our  powers  are  waning ; 
the  consciousness  that  we  are  losing  strength, 
that  our  vitality  is  lessening;  the  conviction  that 
old  age  is  settling  upon  us  and  that  our  life 
forces  are  gradually  ebbing  away,  has  a  blighting, 
shrivelling  influence  upon  the  mental  faculties 
and  functions;  the  whole  character  deteriorates 
under  this  old-age  belief. 

The  result  is  that  we  do  not  use  or  develop 
the  age-resisting  forces  within  us.  The  refresh- 
ening, renewing,  resisting  powers  of  the  body 
are  so  reduced  and  impaired  by  the  conviction 
that  we  are  getting  on  in  years  and  cannot  stand 
what  we  once  could,  that  we  become  an  easy 
prey  to  disease  and  all  sorts  of  physical  infirmities. 

The  mental  attitude  has  everything  to  do  with 
the  hastening  or  the  retarding  of  the  old-age 
condition. 

[ill 


Why   Grow    Old? 


Dr.  Metchnikoff,  of  the  Pasteur  Institute  in 
Paris,  says  that  men  should  live  at  least  one 
hundred  and  twenty  years.  There  is  no  doubt 
that,  as  a  race,  we  shorten  our  lives  very  materi- 
ally through  our  false  thinking,  our  bad  living, 
and  our  old-age  convictions. 

A  few  years  ago  the  London  Lancet,  the  highest 
medical  authority  in  the  world,  gave  a  splendid 
illustration  of  the  power  of  the  mind  to  keep  the 
body  young.  A  young  woman,  deserted  by  her 
lover,  became  insane.  She  lost  all  consciousness 
of  the  passing  of  time.  She  believed  her  lover 
would  return,  and  for  years  she  stood  daily  before 
her  window  watching  for  him.  When  over  seventy 
years  of  age,  some  Americans,  including  physi- 
cians, who  saw  her,  thought  she  was  not  over 
twenty.  She  did  not  have  a  single  gray  hair,  and 
no  wrinkles  or  other  signs  of  age  were  visible. 
Her  skin  was  as  fair  and  smooth  as  a  young  girl's. 
She  did  not  age  because  she  believed  she  was  still 
a  girl.  She  did  not  count  her  birthdays  or  worry 
because  she  was  getting  along  in  years.  She  was 
thoroughly  convinced  that  she  was  still  living  in 
the  very  time  that  her  lover  left  her.  This  mental 
belief  controlled  her  physical  condition.  She  was 
just  as  old  as  she  thought  she  was.  Her  conviction 
outpictured  itself  in  her  body  and  kept  it  youthful. 
[12] 


Whtj    Grow    Old? 


It  is  an  insult  to  your  Creator  that  your  brain 
should  begin  to  ossify,  that  your  mental  powers 
should  begin  to  decline  when  you  have  only 
reached  the  half-century  milestone.  You  ought 
then  to  be  in  your  youth.  What  has  the  appearance 
of  old  age  to  do  with  youth  ?  What  have  gray  hair, 
wrinkles,  and  other  evidences  of  age  to  do  with 
youth  ?  Mental  power  should  constantly  increase. 
There  should  be  no  decline  in  years.  Increasing 
wisdom  and  power  should  be  the  only  signs  that 
you  have  lived  long,  that  you  have  been  many 
years  on  this  planet.  Strength,  beauty,  magnifi- 
cence, superiority,  not  weakness,  uselessness, 
decrepitude,  should  characterize  a  man  who  has 
lived  long. 

As  long  as  you  hold  the  conviction  that  you 
are  sixty,  you  will  look  it.  Your  thought  will 
outpicture  itself  in  your  face,  in  your  whole  appear- 
ance. If  you  hold  the  old-age  ideal,  the  old-age 
conviction,  your  expression  must  correspond. 
The  body  is  the  bulletin  board  of  the  mind. 

On  the  other  hand,  if  you  think  of  yourself  as 
perpetually  young,  vigorous,  robust,  and  buoyant, 
because  every  cell  in  the  body  is  constantly  being 
renewed,  decrepitude  will  not  get  hold  of  you. 

If  you  would  retain  your  youth,  you  must 
avoid  the  enemies  of  youth,  and  there  are  no 
[13] 


Why    Grow    Old? 


greater  enemies  than  the  convictions  of  age  and 
the  gradual  loss  of  interest  in  things,  especially 
in  youthful  amusements  and  in  the  young  life 
about  you.  When  you  are  no  longer  interested 
in  the  hopes  and  ambitions  of  young  people; 
when  you  decline  to  enter  into  their  sports,  to  romp 
and  play  with  children,  you  confess  in  effect  that 
you  are  growing  old;  that  you  are  beginning  to 
harden ;  that  your  youthful  spirits  are  drying  up, 
and  that  the  juices  of  your  younger  days  are 
evaporating.  Nothing  helps  more  to  the  perpet- 
uation of  youth  than  much  association  with  the 
young. 

A  man  quite  advanced  in  years  was  asked  not 
long  ago  how  he  retained  such  a  youthful  appear- 
ance in  spite  of  his  age.  He  said  that  he  had  been 
the  principal  of  a  high  school  for  over  thirty  years ; 
that  he  loved  to  enter  into  the  life  and  sports  of 
the  young  people  and  to  be  one  of  them  in  their 
ambitions  and  interests.  This,  he  said,  had  kept 
his  mind  centred  on  youth,  progress,  and  abound- 
ing life,  and  the  old-age  thought  had  had  no  room 
for  entrance. 

There  is  not  even  a  suggestion  of  age  in  this 
man's  conversation  or  ideas,  and  there  is  a  life, 
a  buoyancy  about  him  which  is  wonderfully 
refreshing. 

[14] 


Why    Grow   Old? 


There  must  be  a  constant  activity  in  the  mind 
that  would  not  age.  "Keep  growing  or  die"  is 
nature's  motto,  a  motto  written  all  over  every- 
thing in  the  universe. 

Hold  stoutly  to  the  conviction  that  it  is  natural 
and  right  for  you  to  remain  young.  Constantly 
repeat  to  yourself  that  it  is  wrong,  wicked  for  you 
to  grow  old  in  appearance;  that  weakness  and 
decrepitude  could  not  have  been  in  the  Creator's 
plan  for  the  man  made  in  His  image  of  perfection ; 
that  it  must  have  been  acquired  —  the  result  of 
wrong  race  and  individual  training  and  thinking. 

Constantly  affirm:  "I  am  always  well,  always 
young,  I  cannot  grow  old  except  by  producing  the 
old-age  conditions  through  my  thought.  The 
Creator  intended  me  for  continual  growth,  per- 
petual advancement  and  betterment,  and  I  am 
not  going  to  allow  myself  to  be  cheated  out  of  my 
birthright  of  perennial  youth." 

No  matter  if  people  do  say  to  you:  "You  are 
getting  along  in  years,"  "You  are  beginning  to 
show  signs  of  age."  Just  deny  these  appearances. 
Say  to  yourself:  "Principle  does  not  age,  Truth 
does  not  grow  old.    I  am  Principle.    I  am  Truth." 

Never  go  to  sleep  with  the  old-age  picture  or 
thought  in  your  mind.  It  is  of  the  utmost  im- 
portance to  make  yourself  feel  young  at  night ;  to 
[15] 


Why   Grow   Old? 


erase  all  signs,  convictions,  and  feelings  of  age; 
to  throw  aside  every  care  and  worry  that  would 
carve  its  image  on  your  brain  and  express  itself 
in  your  face.  The  worrying  mind  actually  gener- 
ates calcareous  matter  in  the  brain  and  hardens 
the  cells. 

You  should  fall  asleep  holding  those  desires 
and  ideals  uppermost  in  the  mind  which  are 
dearest  to  you;  which  you  are  the  most  anxious 
to  realize.  As  the  mind  continues  to  work  during 
sleep,  these  desires  and  ideals  are  thus  intensified 
and  increased.  It  is  well  known  that  impure 
thoughts  and  desires  work  terrible  havoc  then. 
Purity  of  thought,  loftiness  of  purpose,  the  highest 
possible  aims,  should  dominate  the  mind  when  you 
fall  asleep. 

When  you  first  wake  in  the  morning,  especially 
if  you  have  reached  middle  life  or  later,  picture 
the  youthful  qualities  as  vividly  as  possible.  Say 
to  yourself:  "I  am  young,  always  young  — 
strong  —  buoyant.  I  cannot  grow  old  and  de- 
crepit, because  in  the  truth  of  my  being  I  am 
divine,  and  Divine  Principle  cannot  age.  It  is 
only  the  negative  in  me,  the  unreality,  that  can 
take   on   the  appearance  of  age." 

The  great  thing  is  to  make  the  mind  create  the 
youth  pattern  instead  of  the  old-age  pattern.  As 
[16] 


Why    Grow   Old? 


the  sculptor  follows  the  model  which  he  holds  in 
the  mind,  so  the  life  processes  reproduce  in  the 
body  the  pattern  which  is  in  our  thought,  our 
conviction. 

We  must  get  rid  of  the  idea  embedded  in  our 
very  nature  that  the  longer  we  live,  the  more 
experiences  we  have,  the  more  work  we  do,  the 
more  inevitably  we  wear  out  and  become  old, 
decrepit,  and  useless.  We  must  learn  that  living, 
acting,  experiencing,  should  not  exhaust  life  but 
create  more  life.  It  is  a  law  that  action  increases 
force.  Where,  then,  did  the  idea  come  from  that 
man  should  wear  out  through  action  ? 

As  a  matter  of  fact,  Nature  has  bestowed  upon 
us  perpetual  youth,  the  power  of  perpetual  re- 
newal. There  is  not  a  single  cell  in  our  bodies  that 
can  possibly  become  old;  the  body  is  constantly 
being  made  new  through  cell-renewal,  the  cells  of 
those  parts  of  it  that  are  most  active  being  renewed 
oftenest.  It  must  follow  that  the  age-producing 
process  is  largely  artificial  and  unnatural. 

Physiologists  tell  us  that  the  tissue  cells 
of  some  muscles  are  renewed  every  few  days, 
others  every  few  weeks  or  months.  The  cells  of 
the  bone  tissues  are  slower  of  renewal,  but  some 
authorities  estimate  that  eighty  or  ninety  per 
cent  of  all  the  cells  in  the  body  of  a  person  of 
[17] 


Why    Grow    Old? 


ordinary  activity  are  entirely  renewed  in  from 
six  to  twenty -four  months. 

Scientists  have  proved  beyond  question  that 
the  chemistry  of  the  body  has  everything  to  do 
with  the  perpetuation  of  youthful  conditions. 
Every  discordant  thought  produces  a  chemical 
change  in  the  cells,  introducing  foreign  substances 
and  causing  reaction  which  is  injurious  to  the 
integrity  of  the  cells. 

The  impression  of  age  is  thus  made  upon  new 
cells.  This  impression  is  the  thought.  If  the 
thought  is  old,  the  age  impress  appears  upon  the 
cells.  If  the  spirit  of  youth  dominates  the  thought, 
the  impression  upon  the  cells  is  youthful.  In 
other  words,  the  processes  which  result  in  age 
cannot  possibly  operate  except  through  the  mind, 
and  the  billions  of  cells  composing  the  body  are 
instantly  affected  by  every  thought  that  passes 
through  the  brain. 

Putting  old  thoughts  into  a  new  set  of  cells  is 
like  putting  new  wine  into  old  bottles.  They 
don't  agree;  they  are  natural  enemies.  The 
result  is  that  two-year-old  cells  are  made  to  look 
fifty,  sixty,  or  more  years  old,  according  to  the 
thought.  It  is  marvellous  how  quickly  old  thoughts 
can  make  new  cells  appear  old. 

All  discordant  and  antagonistic  thought  mate- 
[18] 


Why    Grow   Old? 


rially  interferes  with  the  laws  of  reconstruction 
and  self-renewal  going  on  in  the  body,  and  the 
great  thing  is,  therefore,  to  form  thought  habits 
which  will  harmonize  with  this  law  of  rejuvena- 
tion —  perpetual  renewal. 

Hard,  selfish,  worry,  and  fear  thoughts,  and 
vicious  habits  of  all  kinds,  produce  the  appearance 
of  age  and  hasten  its  coming. 

Pessimism  is  one  of  the  worst  enemies  of  youth. 
The  pessimist  ages  prematurely  because  his  mind 
dwells  upon  the  black,  discordant,  and  diseased 
side  of  things.  The  pessimist  does  not  progress, 
does  not  face  toward  youth;  he  goes  backward, 
and  this  retrogression  is  fatal  to  youthful  condi- 
tions. Brightness,  cheerfulness,  hopefulness  char- 
acterize youth. 

Everything  that  is  abnormal  tends  to  produce 
old-age  conditions.  No  one  can  remain  young, 
no  matter  to  what  expedients  he  may  resort  to 
enable  him  to  erase  the  marks  of  age,  who  worries 
and  indulges  in  excessive  passion.  The  mental 
processes  produce  all  sorts  of  things,  good  or  bad, 
according  to  the  pattern  in  the  mind. 

Selfishness  is  abnormal  and  tends  to  harden 

and  dry  up  the  brain  and  nerve  cells.    We  are  so 

constituted  that  we  must  be  good  to  be  happy, 

and  happiness  spells  youthfulness.    Selfishness  is 

[19] 


Why    Grow   Old? 


an  enemy  of  happiness  because  it  violates  the  very 
fundamental  principle  of  our  being  —  justice, 
fairness.  We  protest  against  it,  we  instinctively 
despise  and  think  less  of  ourselves  for  practising 
it.  It  does  not  tend  to  produce  health,  harmony, 
or  a  sense  of  well-being,  because  it  does  not  har- 
monize with  the  fundamental  principle  of  our 
being. 

With  many  people,  old  age  is  a  perpetual 
horror,  which  destroys  comfort  and  happiness  and 
makes  life  a  tragedy,  which,  but  for  it,  might  have 
been  a  perpetual  joy. 

Many  wealthy  people  do  not  really  enjoy  their 
possessions  because  of  that  awful  consciousness 
that  they  may  at  any  moment  be  forced  to  leave 
everything. 

Discordant  thought  of  every  kind  tends  to  shorten 
life. 

As  long  as  you  think  old,  hard,  grasping,  en- 
vious thoughts,  nothing  in  the  world  can  keep 
you  from  growing  old.  As  long  as  you  harbor 
these  enemies  of  youth,  you  cannot  remain  in  a 
youthful  condition.  New  thoughts  create  new 
life ;  old  thoughts  —  canned,  stereotyped  thoughts 
—  are  injurious  to  growth,  and  anything  which 
stops  growth  helps  the  aging  processes. 

Whatever  thought  dominates  the  mind  at  any 
[20] 


Why    Grow    Old? 


time  is  constantly  modifying,  changing  the  life 
ideal,  so  that  every  suggestion  that  comes  into 
the  mind  from  any  source  is  registered  in  the  cell 
life,  etched  in  the  character,  and  outpictured  in 
the  expression  and  appearance.  If  the  ideal  of 
continual  youth,  of  a  body  in  a  state  of  perpetual 
rejuvenation,  dominates  the  mind,  it  neutralizes 
the  aging  processes.  All  of  the  body  follows  the 
dominating  thought,  motive  and  feeling,  and 
takes  on  its  expression.  For  example,  a  man  who 
is  constantly  worrying,  fretting,  a  victim  of  fear, 
cannot  possibly  help  outpicturing  this  condition 
in  his  body.  Nothing  in  the  world  can  counter- 
act this  hardening,  aging,  ossifying  process  but  a 
complete  reversal  of  the  thought,  so  that  the  op- 
posite ideas  dominate.  The  effect  of  the  mind  on 
the  body  is  always  absolutely  scientific.  It  follows 
an  inexorable  law. 

There  is  a  power  of  health  latent  in  every  cell 
of  the  body  which  would  always  keep  the  cell  in 
harmony  and  preserve  its  integrity  if  the  thought 
were  right.  This  latent  power  of  health  in  the 
cell  can  be  so  developed  by  right  thinking  and 
living  as  to  retard  very  materially  the  aging 
processes. 

One  of  the  most  effective  means  of  developing 
it  is  to  keep  cheerful  and  optimistic.  As  long  as 
[21] 


Why   Grow   Old? 


the  mind  faces  the  sun  of  life  it  will  cast  no  shadow 
before  it. 

Hold  ever  before  you,  like  a  beacon  light,  the 
youth  ideal  —  strength,  buoyancy,  hopefulness, 
expectancy.  Hold  persistently  to  the  thought 
that  your  body  is  the  last  two  years'  product; 
that  there  may  not  be  in  it  a  single  cell  more  than 
a  year  and  a  half  old ;  that  it  is  constantly  young 
because  it  is  perpetually  being  renewed  and  that, 
therefore,  it  ought  to  look  fresh  and  youthful. 

Constantly  say  to  yourself:  "If  Nature  makes 
me  a  new  body  every  few  months,  comparatively, 
if  the  billions  of  tissue  cells  are  being  perpetually 
renewed,  if  the  oldest  of  these  cells  are,  perhaps, 
rarely,  if  ever,  more  than  two  years  old,  why 
should  they  appear  to  be  sixty  or  seventy-five?" 
A  two-year-old  cell  could  not  look  like  a  seventy- 
year-old  cell  of  its  own  accord,  but  we  know  from 
experience  that  the  old-age  conviction  can  make 
these  youthful  cells  look  very  old.  If  the  body 
is  always  young,  it  should  always  look  young; 
and  it  would  if  we  did  not  make  it  look  old  by 
stamping  old  age  upon  it.  We  Americans  seem 
very  adept  in  putting  the  old-age  stamp  upon 
new  tissue  cells.  Yet  it  is  just  as  easy  to  form 
the  youthful-thought  habit  as  the  old-age-thought 
habit. 

[22] 


Why    Grow    Old? 


If  you  would  keep  young,  you  must  learn  the 
secret  of  self -rejuvenation,  self-refreshment,  self- 
renewal,  in  your  thought,  in  your  work.  Hard 
thoughts,  too  serious  thoughts,  mental  confusion, 
excitement,  worry,  anxiety,  jealousy,  the  indul- 
gence of  explosive  passions,  all  tend  to  shorten 
life. 

You  will  find  a  wonderful  rejuvenating  power 
in  the  cultivation  of  faith  in  the  immortal  Principle 
of  health  in  every  atom  of  your  being.  We  are  all 
conscious  that  there  is  something  in  us  which  is 
never  sick  and  which  never  dies,  something  which 
connects  us  with  the  Divine.  There  is  a  wonderful 
healing  influence  in  holding  the  consciousness  of 
this  great  truth. 

Some  people  are  so  constituted  that  they  per- 
petually renew  themselves.  They  do  not  seem  to 
get  tired  or  weary  of  their  tasks,  because  their 
minds  are  constantly  refreshing  themselves.  They 
are  self-lubricators,  self-renewers.  To  keep  from 
aging,  we  must  keep  the  picture  of  youth  in  all  its 
beauty  and  glory  impressed  upon  the  mind.  It  is 
impossible  to  appear  youthful,  to  be  young,  unless 
we  feel  young. 

Without  realizing  it,  most  people  are  using  the 
old-age  thought  as  a  chisel  to  cut  a  little  deeper 
the  wrinkles.  Their  old-age  thought  is  stamping 
[23] 


Why    Grow    Old? 


itself  upon  the  new  cells  only  a  few  months  old, 
so  that  they  very  soon  look  to  be  forty,  fifty,  sixty, 
or  seventy  years  old. 

Never  allow  yourself  to  think  of  yourself  as 
growing  old.  Constantly  affirm,  if  you  feel  your- 
self aging,  "I  am  young  because  I  am  perpetually 
being  renew ed ;  my  life  comes  new  every  moment 
from  the  Infinite  Source  of  life.  I  am  new  every 
morning  and  fresh  every  evening  because  I  live, 
move,  and  have  my  being  in  Him  who  is  the 
Source  of  all  life."  Not  only  affirm  this  men- 
tally, but  verbally  when  you  can.  Make  this  pic- 
ture of  perpetual  renewal,  constant  refreshment, 
re-creation,  so  vivid,  that  you  will  feel  the  thrill 
of  youthful  renewal  through  your  entire  system. 
Under  no  circumstances  allow  the  old-age  thought 
and  suggestion  to  remain  in  the  mind.  Remem- 
ber that  it  is  what  you  feel,  what  you  are  con- 
vinced of,  that  will  be  outpictured  in  your  body. 
If  you  think  you  are  aging,  if  you  walk,  talk, 
dress,  and  act  like  an  old  person,  these  condi- 
tions will  be  outpictured  in  your  expression,  face, 
manner,  and  body  generally. 

Youthful  thought  should  be  a  life  habit. 

Cling  to  the  thought  that  the  truth  of  your 
being  can  never  age,  because  it  is  Divine  Prin- 
ciple. Picture  the  cells  of  the  body  being  con- 
[24] 


Why    Grow    Old? 


stantly  made  over.  Hold  this  perpetual-renewal 
picture  in  your  mind,  and  the  old-age  thought, 
the  old-age  conviction  will  become  inoperative. 

The  new  youth-thought  habit  will  drive  out 
the  old-age- thought  habit.  If  you  can  only  feel 
your  whole  body  being  perpetually  made  over, 
constantly  renewed,  you  will  keep  the  body 
young,  fresh. 

There  is  a  tremendous  youth-retaining  power 
in  holding  high  ideals  and  lofty  sentiments.  The 
spirit  cannot  grow  old  while  one  is  constantly 
aspiring  to  something  better,  higher,  nobler. 
Employment  which  develops  the  higher  self;  the 
frequent  dwelling  upon  lofty  themes  and  high 
purposes  —  all  are  powerful  preservatives  of 
youth.  It  is  senility  of  the  soul  that  makes  people 
old. 

The  living  of  life  should  be  a  perpetual  joy. 
Youth  and  joy  are  synonymous.  If  we  do  not 
enjoy  life,  if  we  do  not  feel  that  it  is  a  delight  to 
be  alive,  if  we  do  not  look  upon  our  work  as  a 
grand  privilege,  we  shall  age  prematurely. 

Live  always  in  a  happy  mental  attitude.  Live 
in  the  ideal,  and  the  aging  processes  cannot  get 
hold  of  you.  It  is  the  ideal  that  keeps  one  young. 
When  we  think  of  age,  we  think  of  weakness, 
decrepitude,  imperfection;  we  do  not  think  of 
[25] 


Why    Grow   Old? 


wholeness,  vigor.  Every  time  you  think  of  your- 
self make  a  vivid  mental  picture  of  your  ideal 
self  as  the  very  picture  of  youth,  of  health  and 
vigor.  Think  health.  Feel  the  spirit  of  youth 
and  hope  surging  through  your  body.  Form  the 
most  perfect  picture  of  physical  manhood  or 
womanhood  that  is  possible  to  the  human  mind. 

The  elixir  of  youth  which  alchemists  sought 
so  long  in  chemicals,  we  find  lies  in  ourselves. 
The  secret  is  in  our  own  mentality.  Perpetual 
rejuvenation  is  possible  only  by  right  thinking. 
We  look  as  old  as  we  think  and  feel  because  it  is 
thought  and  feeling  that  change  our  appearance. 

Let  us  put  beauty  into  our  lives  by  thinking 
beautiful  thoughts,  building  beautiful  ideals,  and 
picturing  beautiful  things  in  our  imagination. 

I  know  of  no  remedy  for  old-age  conditions  so 
powerful  as  love  —  love  for  our  work,  love  for 
our  fellow-men,  love  for  everything. 

It  is  the  most  powerful  life-renewer,  refreshener, 
re-creator,  known.  Love  awakens  the  noblest 
sentiments,  the  finest  sensibilities,  the  most  ex- 
quisite qualities  in  man. 

Try  to  find  and  live  in  the  soul  of  things,  to  see 
the  best  in  everybody.  When  you  think  of  a 
person,  hold  in  your  mind  the  ideal  of  that  per- 
son —  that  which  God  meant  him  to  be  —  not 
[26] 


Why    Grow    Old? 


the  deformed,  weak,  ignorant  creature  which 
vice  and  wrong  living  may  have  made.  This 
habit  of  refusing  to  see  anything  but  the  ideal  will 
not  only  be  a  wonderful  help  to  others,  but  also 
to  yourself.  Refuse  to  see  deformity  or  weakness 
anywhere,  but  hold  persistently  your  highest 
ideals.  Other  things  being  equal,  it  is  the  clean- 
est, purest  mind  that  lives  longest. 

Harmony,  peace,  and  serenity  are  absolutely 
necessary  to  perpetuate  youthful  conditions.  All 
discord,  all  unbalanced  mental  operations,  tend 
to  produce  aging  conditions.  The  contemplation 
of  the  eternal  verities  enriches  the  ideals  and 
freshens  life  because  it  destroys  fear,  uncertainty, 
and  worry  by  adding  assurance  and  certainty  to 
life. 

Old-age  conditions  can  only  exist  in  cells  which 
have  become  deteriorated  and  hardened  by 
wrong  thinking  and  vicious  living.  Unrestrained 
passion  or  fits  of  temper  burn  out  the  cells  very 
rapidly. 

People  who  are  very  useful,  who  are  doing  their 
work  grandly,  growing  vigorously,  retain  their 
youthful  appearance.  We  can  form  the  habit  of 
staying  young  just  as  well  as  the  habit  of  growing 
old. 

Increasing  power  and  wisdom  ought  to  be  the 
[27] 


Why    Grow    Old? 


only  sign  of  our  long  continuance  on  this  earth. 
We  ought  to  do  our  best  work  after  fifty,  or  even 
after  sixty  or  seventy;  and  if  the  brain  is  kept 
active,  fresh,  and  young,  and  the  brain  cells  are 
not  ruined  by  too  serious  a  life,  by  worry,  fear, 
selfishness,  or  disease,  the  mind  will  constantly 
increase  in  vigor  and  power. 

If  we  are  convinced  that  the  life  processes  can 
perpetuate  youth  instead  of  age,  they  will  obey 
the  command.  The  fact  that  man's  sin,  his  ig- 
norance of  true  living,  made  the  threescore  years, 
with  the  possible  addition  of  ten  more,  the  average 
limit  of  life  centuries  ago,  is  no  reason  why  any 
one  in  this  man-emancipating  age  should  narrow 
himself  to  this  limit. 

An  all-wise  and  benevolent  Creator  could  not 
make  us  with  such  a  great  yearning  for  long  life, 
a  longing  to  remain  young,  without  any  possibility 
of  realizing  it.  The  very  fact  of  this  universal 
protest  in  all  human  beings  against  the  enormous 
disproportion  between  the  magnitude  of  our  mis- 
sion upon  earth  and  the  shortness  of  the  time 
and  the  meagreness  of  the  opportunities  for  carry- 
ing it  out;  the  universal  yearning  for  longevity; 
and  all  analogy  in  the  animal  kingdom,  all  point 
to  the  fact  that  man  was  not  only  intended  for  a 
much  longer  life,  but  also  for  a  much  greater  free- 
[28] 


Why    Grow   Old? 


dom  from  the  present  old-age  weaknesses  and 
handicaps. 

There  is  not  .the  slightest  indication  in  the  mar- 
vellous mechanism  of  man  that  he  was  intended 
to  become  weak,  crippled,  and  useless  after  a 
comparatively  few  years.  Instead,  all  the  indica- 
tions are  toward  progress  into  a  larger,  completer, 
fuller  manhood,  greater  power.  A  dwarfed, 
weak,  useless  man  was  never  in  the  Creator's  plan. 
Retrogression  is  contrary  to  all  principle  and  law. 
Progress,  perpetual  enlargement,  growth,  are  the 
truth  of  man.  The  Creator  never  made  anything 
for  retrogression ;  it  is  contrary  to  the  very  nature 
of  Deity.  "Onward  and  upward"  is  written  upon 
every  atom  in  the  universe.  Imagine  the  Creator 
fashioning  a  man  in  his  own  likeness  for  only  a 
few  years  of  activity  and  growth,  and  then  — 
retrogression,  crippled  helplessness !  There  is 
nothing  of  God  in  this  picture.  Whatever  the 
Deity  makes  bears  the  stamp  of  perpetual  prog- 
ress, everlasting  growth.  There  is  no  going 
backward  in  His  plans,  everything  moves  forward 
to  one  eternal  divine  purpose.  A  decrepit,  help- 
less old  man  or  woman  is  a  burlesque  of  the 
human  being  God  made.  His  image  does  not  de- 
teriorate or  go  backward,  but  moves  forever  on- 
ward, eternally  upward.  If  human  beings  could 
[29] 


Why    Grow    Old? 


only  once  grasp  this  idea,  that  the  reality  of  them 
is  divine,  and  that  divinity  does  not  go  backward 
or  grow  old,  they  would  lose  all  sense  of  fear  and 
worry,  all  enemies  of  their  progress  and  happiness 
would  slink  away,  and  the  aging  processes  would 
cease. 

The  coming  man  will  not  grow  old  in  abear- 
ance as  he  now  does.  The  tendency  of  the  race  will 
be  more  and  more  towards  perpetual  youth. 

The  time  will  come  when  people  will  look  upon 
old  age  as  an  unreality,  a  negative,  a  mere  phan- 
tom of  the  real  man.  The  rose  that  fades  is  not 
the  real  rose.  The  real  rose  is  the  ideal  —  the 
idea  which  pushes  out  a  new  one  every  time  we 
pluck  the  one  that  fades. 

The  real  man  is  God's  ideal,  and  in  the  light 
of  the  new  day  that  is  dawning  man  will  glimpse 
that  perfect  ideal.  He  will  know  the  truth,  and 
the  truth  will  make  him  free.  In  that  new  day  he 
will  cast  from  him  the 'hampering,  age- worn  ves- 
tures woven  in  the  thought-loom  of  mankind 
through  the  centuries,  and  stand  erect  —  the 
perfect  being,  the  ideal  man. 


[30] 


Date  Due 

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BOSTON  COLLEGE 


3  9031  01166155  0 


BOSTON  COLLEGE  LIBRARY 

UNIVERSITY  HEIGHTS 
CHESTNUT  HILL,  MASS. 


Books  may  be  kept  for  two  weeks  and  may 
be  renewed  for  the  same  period,  unless  re- 
served. 

Two  cents  a  day  is  charged  for  each  book 
kept  overtime. 

If  you  cannot  find  what  you  want,  ask  the 
Librarian  who  will  be  glad  to  help  you. 

The  borrower  is  responsible  for  books  drawn 
on  his  card  and  for  all  fines  accruing  on  the 
same. 


